Exposure to Chemical Warfare Agents (CWAs), toxic industrial chemicals, and biological agents poses a threat to those around them. The armed forces can face potential exposure during combat operations. Mustard Gas was used during WWI. The Tokyo subway was attacked with Sarin gas in 1995. Recently, Sarin gas was confirmed to have been used on Syrian civilians by the state, resulting in hundreds of deaths in 2013. Further, most CWAs are odorless and colorless making them difficult to find; contact with trace quantities can cause permanent health damage, while exposure to larger concentrations of these chemicals can cause severe acute symptoms and even death. Thus, it is desirable for the military or for a first responder to have the ability to quickly determine the location of toxic chemical contamination so it can be marked to be avoided and/or rapidly and efficiently decontaminated.
CWAs are generally delivered as aerosols or in ordnance and can deposit on personnel, vehicles, shelters, soil and other surfaces. They could be delivered in a combat scenario or even in a domestic terrorism attack. This makes it of upmost importance that the contamination is located and removed from the surfaces. This is typically done through treating the entire surface with decontaminating solutions.
Current methods for decontamination may require large amounts of water and decontamination formulation. In operation, this may require those performing decontamination to have to move, deliver, and store copious amounts of water and solution where they have set up their decontamination line. Further, these solutions may be toxic themselves and/or strong oxidizers.
While performing decontamination procedures, operators ordinarily wear Hazmat suits. These suits are usually cumbersome, hot and difficult to maneuver. The operators try to minimize their time in these suits.
Additionally, many decontamination efforts may not sufficiently destroy a substantial amount of the agent present. The agent could be absorbed into the surface, stuck in cracks, or missed completely. Ensuring substantial contamination was removed may reduce health risks to personnel who may come into future contact with the contaminated surfaces.
Additionally, it may be because no up-front work has been done to identify the location of the contamination, excessive water, decontamination formulation, and manpower is often wasted on performing decontamination on surfaces where there may in fact be no CWA or other contamination present. It may improve the efficiency and reduce the cost and logistical burden of performing decontamination by having a technology or system of technologies capable of detecting and informing the user of the precise location of the contamination on the surfaces.